Expenditure Monitoring

Post-Award Administrators will review all requisitions, inter-departmental billings (IDB), business procurement charges (BPC), and travel requests to ensure that the expenses to be charged are allowable and allocable to the respective awards. If the expense does not meet one of the criteria and/or does not seem appropriate to the grant's scope of work, Post-Award will contact the PI and/or departmental administrator to obtain more information and suggest alternate methods of payment as necessary.

To see expenses departments would like to charge, click on Worklist in the top left-hand corner of the Home page on PeopleSoft.

Click on the hyperlinked portion of each expense to see more detail. The name of the preparer, the transaction ID, and comments (if entered) will be on the first tab. The items to be purchased, the amounts, and the speedtypes to be charged are listed on the Approval Review or Line Info tab, depending on the type of transaction.

Verify whether the person who entered the expense has been delegated that authority by the PI (RINST panel, Authorization tab). The name of the person who entered the requisition or purchase should appear there with the corresponding box checked behind it. If authorization is not given, email the administrator and/or PI to verify expense is valid.

Check Overall Grant Status report in PS (KUMC > KU Grants > KU Grt Reports > Overall Grant Status) for each listed speedtype to make sure that the account to be charged has sufficient funds for the proposed expenses. Be sure to subtract the encumbrances from the current direct cost balance to obtain the true remainder.

Check the project folder to see if the expense is listed in the budget proposal. If not, find out if it is an allowable charge per sponsor guidelines. A short reference guide is provided below. If the type of expense is not included there, check the Sponsor Guidelines on the RI website and/or the Funding Agency Guidelines.

If expenditures are to post on a federal grant, reference OMB Circular A-21 to make sure that these charges are reasonable, allowable and allocable to the sponsored projects.

Review Terms and Conditions of the agreement—would these expenses require a budget revision? Is revision allowable per the sponsor's agreement?

After checking all of these factors, Post-Award Administrator must Approve, Recycyle, or Deny each expense in the Worklist. Approving will send the charge to RI Accounting for issuance of a purchase order and payment; Recycling will return the expense to the preparer for changes; and Denying will cancel the expense request altogether (comments must be entered when Recycling or Denying). If expense is recycled or denied, make note of the transaction number, preparer's name, speedtype number, and the reason for recycling or denying.

You may be asked by an auditor, RI, or the department to explain or justify your decision on any expense, so be sure that you fully understand the transaction before making a determination. When in doubt, obtain an email from the PI or administrator explaining the benefit and relevance to the grant of the particular expense and file it in the project file.

Federal awards

Payroll expenses should roughly match the proposal budget; must obtain sponsor's approval for PI's effort to decrease by 25% or more from what was originally proposed.

Administrative salaries, office supplies, local phone charges, and memberships are not allowable charges on federal funded research grants. (These are considered to be indirect costs and should be covered by a departmental research overhead fund.)

Subject payments can not be approved without a current Human Subjects Committee (HSC) approval on file.

Animal care expenses can not be approved without a current Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) approval on file.

Federal funds can not be used to offset overdrafts incurred on any other sponsored award or project. Any overrun on a sponsored project should be charged to a departmental R&D account.

Cost transfers to NIH grants that represent corrections of clerical or bookkeeping errors must be accomplished within 90 days of having discovered the error. Correcting entries must be supported by documentation that fully explains how the error occurred and a certification of the correctness of the new charge by PI and SPA.

Capital equipment (>$5,000) must have been included in the proposal budget or most recent progress report, and requires prior approval if it was not.

Parking fees, medical licenses, entertainment costs, and any other personal expenses are not allowable.

Private awards

Subject payments can not be approved without a current Human Subjects Committee (HSC) approval on file.

Animal care expenses can not be approved without a current Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) approval on file.

Private funds can not be used to offset overdrafts incurred on any other sponsored award or project. Any overrun on a sponsored project should be charged to a departmental R&D account.

Cost transfers to private grants that represent corrections of clerical or bookkeeping errors must be accomplished within 90 days of having discovered the error. Correcting entries must be supported by documentation that fully explains how the error occurred and a certification of the correctness of the new charge by PI and SPA.

Parking fees, medical licenses, entertainment costs, and any other personal expenses are not allowable.

RI-funded accounts

Faculty salary is not allowed; only research associates' or technicians' salaries listed on the approved budget.

Travel is not permitted unless it is clearly necessary in order to collect data. It must have been included in the original proposal budget or it will need to be approved by SPA.

Equipment purchases must not exceed 10% of the total budget. It must have been included in the original proposal budget or it will need to be approved by SPA.

Only research supplies are allowable.

Computers are not allowable expenses.

Memberships, dues, and phone charges are not allowable.

Parking fees, medical licenses, entertainment costs, and any other personal expenses are not allowable.

R&D accounts

Parking fees, medical licenses, entertainment costs, and any other personal expenses are not allowable.